


Dog tags

by ONeillwith2ls



Series: Episode tags [21]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Episode: s07e17-18 Heroes, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:55:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26954698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ONeillwith2ls/pseuds/ONeillwith2ls
Summary: Originally written as part of the Jack&SamShipDay2020 and can be found on my profile. Republished as part of the Episode tags for easiness for me. Feel free to comment or not as I know many of you already commented on the original, so I won’t take it personally.
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Carter/Jack O'Neill
Series: Episode tags [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1652002
Kudos: 35





	Dog tags

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sam and Jack Ship Day Prompts](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25559308) by [ONeillwith2ls](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ONeillwith2ls/pseuds/ONeillwith2ls). 



Sam sat on the stool beside him, grasping at his dog tags, which had come off as the medics had lifted him from the field.

She had wanted to scream at them for being so careless. This was the Colonel they were tossing onto the stretcher! It's not what had come out; she had simply let out another small cry picking up the tags in her palms. Teal'c, ever the rock, had stood firm beside her, giving her a reprieve of shared concern for the man lying uncharacteristically still.

She read the letters again on the tag:

O'Neill, Jack

799 36 6412

BNEG RC

Twenty-seven characters longThat's all Jack O'Neill was to the military. His tags telling them all they needed to know if something went wrong, injured, or dead. It didn't matter that's all he was to them.

"Major Carter, ma'am?" She heard an airman ask her.

"Yah?" she said still in a haze.

"There's a Pete Shanahan on the line for you?" he informed her. "He said it was urgent."

Sam shook her head. There was nothing which Pete could tell her which was more important than the man she was holding a vigil over.

"Tell him I'm not available, in meetings or have delicate work in the lab. I can't leave, just find an excuse and refuse calls for the rest of the day from him." She told the airman.

"Yes, ma'am." he agreed, looking concerned for the Major before he left.

She took a steadying breath. She had already lost her best friend today. She'd be damned if she lose him too.

She felt the grooves from the dog tags again pressed into her palm and she bit her bottom lip, trying to stop the tears.

He meant so much more to her than just twenty-seven characters.

She hadn't been kidding in her earlier praise of him. If anything, she had been downplaying him.

" _He's an amazing man. After everything he's done, he's still modest, quite self-effacing actually. He even likes people to think he's not as smart as he really is. Bottom line: He's an incredibly strong leader who's given more of himself for this program than anyone has given for... well... anything I can imagine."_

Nothing, nothing else mattered. If there was no Jack O'Neill, everything else's value would be null and void. He was simply incredible. He was her everything so did the twenty-seven characters do him justice?

"Is that all you are to them?" she asked him quietly.

His lifetime of secret service to this country made most men pale in his presence. If it was simply down to just his service, not even then would it do him justice.

He commanded more than just SG-1. He held a power over her, all this time, even when she's dated and was now engaged to someone else, Jack O'Neill could still command her moods. A harsh tone could make her sad, a joke would make her smile, an order would make her jump, a request and she would sacrifice herself for him.

All these 'dog tags' told them were physical, but read between the lines, that's where you'd find the real him.

Because wrapped in the twenty-seven characters was her whole world.

It was a cliché she knew he'd hate, but it was true all the same.

"Hey," Daniel said to her, coming into the room.  
"Your watch already?" she said quietly.

"Yah." Daniel said quietly, watching in sympathy at Sam again, seeing her play with the dog tags in her hand. "You still got those?" he asked her.

She shrugged. "For some reason I just can't seem to let go." She told him then looked up and saw Daniel nod in understanding as he came over and put an arm around her.

"Maybe you can give them back to him when he wakes up." He told her. There was a pause before a little grin appeared on his face "Only make him sweat about it first, make him think he has to get new ones." Daniel told her with a cheeky grin as she elbowed him playfully as she giggled.

"Yah sure you betcha." She agreed, leaning her head into the crook of Daniel's shoulder as they sat.

"Sir, I just wanted to say...when you were lying there, I… I'm really glad you're okay." She told him, holding back the tears. He stepped forward, his face full of compassion as he whispered a "C'mere." and wrapped her safely in his arms.

She breathed in his scent, thankful that he held her so close. She calmed in his arms, felt her whole body relax.

This was who Jack O'Neill was, not twenty-seven characters, not a dog tag, he was a man, firm and strong, her compass and her guide. It was he who literally pushed her through the Stargate for the very first time and they never stopped!

* * *

A little while later she opened the door to the room as she was about to leave when she remembered part of the reason she had come in the room. "Oh, um, these fell off while they were moving you. I kept a hold-" She said, handing him his dog tags.

"Thanks." He said quietly. "I wouldn't want them forgetting me."

"I'd make sure of it, sir." she told him gently. She chuckled a little and said softly, "You're unforgettable, at least to me."

They caught one another's eyes again, and they stood frozen for a fraction longer than two friends should and they knew it;; they just couldn't move away either.

"You know, that's not necessarily a good thing-" He told her with a serious look on his face but a playful tone as they started down the corridor. "I had a gym teacher who told me the same thing."

"What did you do?" she asked him, knowing him some mischief was the source of his teachers' problems with him.

"It wasn't just me. My charming cousin was in on it too."

Sam's eyes closed and she laughed, her imagination was tantalized. "What did you _both_ do?"

"Angus set alight to the gym rope while we were doing strength training for hockey." he said with a pained (from his wound) smile (which was genuine).

She laughed "Why does this not surprise me?"

"I just happened to be on the rope climbing it at the time." She giggled as he continued "He said I was moving as slow as a snail, made climbing the rope a bit more of a challenge, but it did speed me up." He said dryly which just made her giggle more. "The gym teacher said exactly the same thing, you boys are unforgettable!"


End file.
